Four things that I love about Facebook Insights

I am always on the lookout for fantastic tools to help small businesses be more successful. So when Yahoo!, a company that I work with, came out with the Marketing Dashboard, I was truly excited that SMBs had a tool to help them view and manage their marketing results, their online reputation and their website performance.

Now, I am thrilled that Yahoo! has integrated Facebook Insights into the Marketing Dashboard, allowing SMBs to evaluate the efficacy of their social media marketing alongside their other marketing metrics.
Here are 4 things I love about Facebook Insights in the Marketing Dashboard:

1-It saves you time: One of the most precious commodities for SMB owners is their time, and social media often takes up a lot of it. Not only does it take time to create, curate and consume content, but it takes even more time to gather feedback and analyze it. Facebook Insights on the Marketing Dashboard help by giving you a snapshot of your Facebook interactions all in one place (not to mention alongside your other key marketing data, like reputation and marketing results). This means that there is no wasted time in gathering the data or having to shift back and forth between tools. 2-You can see what's working (and what isn't): Knowledge is power and therefore, being able to chart and compare postings and interactions on Facebook can help you decide where to allocate your time and resources in your social media efforts. For example, you can glean how key metrics such as your Likes, Friends of Fans, and Reach trend and compare over time, which posts have been the most engaging so that you know what type of content to share and what sources you are generating the most interactions from. 3-It's easy to use: Facebook Insights has a colorful and expertly laid out interface featuring charts and graphs with explanations of the types of data. Because the Facebook Insights tab is also integrated right into the Marketing Dashboard, it's easy to access the data as well. 4-It's a fabulous value: SMBs are very focused on their costs and the Marketing Dashboard is a great tool that won't break your bank. Plus, as a bonus, Facebook Insights is a free module within the Dashboard that comes as part of the tool's overall value.

You can sign up for the Dashboard for free at https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com by clicking on 'Marketing Dashboard'.

Carol Roth (Twitter: @CarolJSRoth) is a former investment banker & bestselling author of The Entrepreneur Equation